Pumpkin Patch

I love autumn!  Summer is wonderful, but there's also something good about the weather cooling a little, the leaves starting to turn, and the return of our school routine.  (Oh, routine, how I miss you.)

Part of the fun of autumn is making trips to Apple Hill and the pumpkin patch!  I wanted to go before the Little Ones leave so I could take some cute pictures with them.

Of course, I always imagine I will be getting cute pictures of everybody, but the reality often looks more like this.

Brianna and Katie share a moon cake on top of the hay pyramid.

Because we were going in the afternoon, I gave the teenagers the option of getting a ride home from school or coming with us.

Sam chose to get a ride home.  Eli wanted to get a ride home, but didn't.  And Brianna likes the pumpkin patch.  Like Grammy and I do.

We have this same picture almost every year going back the last several years.  The 2005 picture has Annaliese, Josiah, Samuel, Brianna, Eli, and baby Jack, who we called Furby at the time.  2011's shot hangs in our school room with Sam, Bri, Eli, Jack and Hannah.

There are a couple of "horses" kids can rope "cows" from.

I'm not sure who thought giving kids rope was a good idea?  Maybe my kids are special.

Part of the fun of Fog Willow is all the animals.  Goats, bunnies, chickens, cows, etc.

Notice Katie petting the goat?  This a really big deal.  When Katie joined our family, she was terrified of all animals.  Even fish.  The first time we took her to the pumpkin patch 2 years ago, she freaked out and started climbing up my body at the sight of the goats.

I'm starting to see maternal inclinations in Hannah, which is huge.  This means that she's absorbed and observed enough "mothering" to see understand how to nurture younger people.  She was making sure the Little Ones could see the bunnies.  She likes to help them.

One of my favorite parts of the pumpkin patch is the hay ride.  You can tell by Hannah's hair how bumpy it was!  I'm surprised I got a clear picture, the first few were blurry.

Most of us chose to sit on the less bumpy sides of the hay ride.  (The other Little One picked sitting on the floor in the hay.)

We also have several pictures with this tree over the years.  I can't believe how much my little Breezy Bunny is growing up.  

They're building a new playground structure.  They removed a couple of the older ones.  This one is designed to look like a tractor, with huge tires at the climbing tunnels.

Since this will likely not be our only pumpkin patch event this month, I had the kids pick out a tiny pumpkin each instead of getting a big one for the front porch.  I'm in the process of glittering mine (thank you, Pinterest) and will share pictures when it's finished.

Happy Autumn!

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